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rays-of-fire-and-ice · 1 year

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Headcanon Fifth and Tenth Division Officers

So, after a chat with @alexiethymia, I got the urge to write up a list of every division officer I've ever made up for the sake of a story. There was a time where I wouldn't have ever bothered even naming an officer (just referring to them as 'officer' or by their rank), but that's changed over the years. So, for perhaps no one's enjoyment but my own, here are all the officers who I've made up in my fics.

Quick notes before we start: according to the BLEACH wiki and chapter 119, the ranks 11-20 can be occupied by more than one officer, so you might see me saying things like 'one of Fifth Division's twelfth seats' for instance.

Some of the info here is just things I was thinking of at the time I was writing fics these characters appear in, such as what their first names might be or their backgrounds.

Finally, I'll be including pictures and gifs of characters from other series just to give you can idea what these officers look like.

Tomoko Suzuki: Fifth Division's only seventeenth seat. She's appeared in Petrichor and As Months Go By, As Seasons Change:

She's a hard worker, responsible, observant, and unafraid to give her views on something or ask a question.

She's quick to follow orders and makes a decent leader, but can sometimes be a little too stubborn once she sets her mind to something and can be rash in battle when she has to protect someone.

She's from a lesser noble family comprised of just herself, her mother, and father.

She has a deep respect for Momo, and the two have known each other since Momo first became a seated officer, Although slow to come around to Shinji as her captain (having been scarred by Aizen's betrayal like everyone else in her division), she's come to greatly respect him too.

Her shikai, as seen in Petrichor, has the ability to numb whatever it cuts, causing the target to experience paresthesia (or 'pins-and-needles') and potentially paralysis through whichever nerves were struck. Depending on the size of the opponent, this can last from 10 seconds to 2 minutes. Her sword doesn't change much in appearance expect for the golden stripe that runs down the middle of the blade.

I imagined her as being a bit older than Momo, with dark green-grey hair kept in a long braid on her shoulder, dark grey eyes, and round-framed glasses (which she needs to see short-distance). She looks most like an older version of Mei Shijima from Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun.

Kobe Abiko: an unseated Fifth Division officer. He appears in the first part of As Months Go By, As Seasons Change and in Petrichor

At the time of writing him, I imagined him as someone who's nervous around authority and about proving why he's worthy of being a Shinigami.

He was one of the younger graduates in his year and has yet to achieve shikai.

Momo sympathizes with him for his nervousness.

In terms of appearance, he looks any background BLEACH character, so take your pick!

Katsuro Hoshino: Fifth Division's eighth seat. He appears in part 2 of As Months Go By, As Seasons Change and makes a cameo in For What the Future Holds. I actually went into a surprising amount of detail for him in that story:

He's from one of the lower districts and has no family or friends from there. Because of this, he rarely has any inclination to go visit where he used to live.

He's always looking to improve himself, so he often asks for feedback on his training, performance on team missions, or where he's lacking.

Because of this, he's a perfectionist. If he ever messes up, he insists on correcting his mistake. If he ever got praised for something, he’d ask how he could make it better.

Shinji suspects all of this stems from the fact he's from one of lower districts, as in his experiences people from those districts tend to be ambitious and need to provide for those back home.

In reality, Katsuro is just ambitious by nature, but his environment definitely made him want to live a better life than he did when he first arrived in the Soul Society.

I can see him being a fan of Izuru's haiku poems. I'd like to think he got to meet him in person thanks to Momo and he internally fanboys throughout the exchange.

In appearance, he has pale skin, light grey eyes, and platinum blond hair. I imagine him being an older version of Ojiro from Boku no Hero Academia, but taller, thinner, and with his hair slicked back

Fuyuka Hirose: one of Fifth Division's two twelfth seats. She's mentioned in For All That Was Lost and Momo comes to pay her respects at her grave in To Give You Shelter:

She first came to the Fifth division 22 years before the main story and rose up the ranks due to her excellent zanjutsu skills and for harnessing her shikai to almost it's full potential

I haven't thought about what exactly her shikai would be, but if I had to take a guess, it'd be an earth-based zanpakuto with a power that involves the smell of flowers, with each smell having a different effect on the opponent - one makes them dizzy, another causes them to break out in sores, etc - but there would be one that can be crushed and used as a healing agent (kind of like Minazuki's stomach acids). It's main weakness is, of course, that once an opponent figures out it's the smell affecting them, they just have to cover their nose. Also, it has the potential to affect allies too.

She likes to wear earrings (like these ones) and used to wear a single long earring that was one of her most prized possessions in her right ear. However, after a mission where she almost lost her ear in battle because of it, she only wore the earring on special occasions from then on.

Her favourite fruit is nashi pears.

She loves gardening, and is often seen taking care of the Fifth Division's gardens in her free time. She asks Momo if she can gather a group together to do gardening every few months, and Momo will sometimes join in if she was free.

While on a posting in a seaside town, she heard about a flower festival the locals liked to go to in the countryside; she made it a goal to attend it whenever she is next on a mission in the World of the Living.

She dies in the TYBW arc during the first invasion.

Her gardening work is carried on by those who used to be part of her gardening groups.

I imagined her having short brown hair that varied in length over the years (it was never longer than above the shoulder) and lavender-coloured eyes. I think the closest character to look like her is Meryl from Trigun, maybe a younger version of the character

Ohashi: one of Fifth Division's twelfth seats. They appear in It's Been a While:

They were originally a thirteenth seat but were promoted after the war.

I can't remember what gender I thought of them as being at the time, so I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Funai: one of Fifth Division's fifteenth seats. He's mentioned in For All That Was Lost:

I think at the time I thought his first name would be Tsunemi, which has a few spellings, but I went with the one with the characters 常見 (I think together the characters mean 'usual/ordinary, see').

He's a painter, and usually paints landscapes; his skills are so good a few of his artworks are on display in the Fifth Division and he's been encouraged by many officers to sell his works.

Momo offers him tips on how to draw human anatomy while he helps her improve her nature drawings.

He has a small crush on Hirose, and he's one of the first people she ropes into being a part of her gardening groups.

While on a mission in the World of the Living, he first saw a ferris wheel and decided the next time he visited he would ride one; Momo suspects this is because he wanted to get a good view of a landscape or cityscape for a painting.

He dies in the TYBW during the second invasion.

He's survived by a younger adoptive brother who is in another division. He has requested to be transferred to Fifth Division to carry on his brother's legacy, but Shinji is reluctant as he wants the brother to live out his own life and not the life of someone else.

In appearance, he has tanned skin, thick dark auburn hair, brown eyes, and wears a black corded necklace with an engraved silver pendant on the end (much like this; the engraving he has is of a kanji characters which translate to 'keep moving forward', a mantra he had while growing up in the Rukongai). Funnily enough, Kubo ended up drawing how I imagined him a little when he drew the OG Gotei 13; the closest character to his appearance is Danjiro, former captain of Fifth Division (maybe they're related?!)

Hoga and Domen: Fifth Division officers who both hold the rank of twentieth seat (they share it with 4 others). They are mentioned in For All That Was Lost:

Domen I saw as being a man with the first name Zenzo (spelt 全三, with the character together meaning 'all, three'), while Hoga has the first name Sakae (spelt 栄 and meaning 'prosperity') and I saw the character at first as also a man but at other times as a woman, so you decide.

Both want to go to a beach in the World of the Living as neither of them had seen the sea before. While there, they also want to go to the bars and see if the drinks taste any different from those in the Rukongai.

They are big drinkers, and it'd be unusual for them to not go drinking at least once a week.

They were rivals once, often competing against each other at the Academy. Their rivalry was often viewed negatively by others, but to both of them it was a show of respect, that they saw the other as being of equal footing and worthy of competing against.

After graduating, their rivalry started to flourish into a friendship. They went to different divisions, until they ended up in the Fifth Division with the same rank.

That doesn't mean they're not competitive with each other anymore. They often challenge each other to do things, much to the division's enjoyment and sometimes chagrin.

They both die in the TYBW arc during the first invasion. Those that knew them were glad to learn that it appears they died fighting together.

I don't really have much to say for their appearances, but I imagine they'd both be almost 6 feet tall and look like they're in their mid to late twenties. Domen has a thick, bleach-blonde mullet (he originally had black hair, but he chose to colour it because he thought it's make him look 'cool'), while Hoga has black hair tied back in a short ponytail with bangs on either side of his/her face. If I had to pick characters that they most look like, Domen looks like Onizuka Eikichi and and Hoga looks like Danma Ryuji (if a man) from Shonan Junai Gumi.

Higuchi: Fifth Division's seventh seat. He appears in A Matter of the Heart, Petrichor and It's Him.

I never thought of a first name for him, but I think Katsuo (勝雄, the characters together meaning 'victory, hero/manly') would be a good fit.

In It's Him, he's one of zombie Hitsugaya's victims. If this were still the case in the canon story line, he'd live but have a scar on his body and struggle for a short time to look at Hitsugaya. In A Matter of the Heart, he gets pretty emotional and riled up when he brings up Momo is one of the detention cells. So, yeah, needless to say he has a bit of a tense view of Tenth Division's captain.

He's a burly guy, definitely one of the bigger men in the Fifth Division, and often asked to lift things by Shinji as a result - such as new furniture to move in or supplies for the reconstruction efforts in the ten year time skip.

He's also a bit paternal, always looking out for the younger recruits and acting as a father figure to some fellow officers. He became protective of everyone in the division after Aizen's betrayal, including Momo. Needless to say, he was distrustful of Shinji at first, and was very slow to come around to him being his captain.

He was transferred from Ninth Division to Fifth when Aizen was still in charge. Given what happened with Aizen and Tosen, he wonders sometimes if the transfer was part of Aizen's plan.

While in Ninth Division, he was an editor for the Seireitei Communication. He sometimes misses the role and has tried multiple times to get a column in the magazine going, but his ideas are often derivative of other writers (such as Sui Feng's 'I'll Do Anything to Live' and Renji's 'Let's Do Shikai!!').

After the war, he finally tied to knot with 'his misses' (a resident in the Rukongai he's known since they met at a festival decades ago). Shinji was delighted when he said he wanted to host the after party at the Fifth Division, and it came as a much needed morale boost during the reconstruction efforts. To this day, he still gushes about her when he's drunk.

In appearance, Higuchi is muscular and tall (standing at over 6 feet) and he is a little older than Shinji. He has short dark hair, bushy eyebrows, and facial hair that he sometimes grows out but most keeps shaven. He looks a lot like the younger version of Tamiya Gantetsusai from Hell's Paradise.

Yumi Takagaki: one of Fifth Division's five thirteenth seats. She makes a cameo in Petrichor.

She's good friends with Narita from Tenth Division, who she met at the Academy. She's also good friends with Hirose and Hoga, the latter of whom she remembers from her district as a neighbour.

In appearance, she has light brown hair tied back in a bun with a beaded ribbon that's ends rest on her shoulders and dark green eyes.

Takaya: before I knew about Genji, she was Fifth Division third seat in A Matter of the Heart. I have since gone back and edited her out, and she now one of their Fifteenth seats. She makes a cameo appearance in For What the Future Holds.

Minagawa: Tenth Divison's third seat. He makes a cameo in It's Been a While.

His first name is Yusuke, spelt 勇祐 and the characters together [I think based on what I searched] to mean 'courage, to help'.

He's an affable person who Toshiro and Rangiku know they can rely on to run the division if they ever need him to. He shares traits with each of his superiors, having the hardwork ethic and focus of his captain and is as observant about those around him as Rangiku.

He came to the Soul Society as a teenager and was sent to the Sakahone (East 76th) district. Like most residents, he worshiped Mimihagi.

He had anger issues and was prone to getting into fights with the teens and adults in the district when he first arrived. He still has a few scars from these fights.

Like most in the division, he has friends and family he will do anything to protect. He had a large adoptive family (3 sisters and 3 brothers) and was one of only three family members that had spiritual potential. They all took on the same surname to show they were a family.

The first member of his family he met was his youngest sister, who saved from being caught by the adults that were pursing him. He then met his two younger brothers when they helped him in a fight, his older sister after she was abandoned by her original caretakers, his second young sister when he helped her win a fight, and his older brother when he helped lead one of his younger brothers and youngest sister back to him.

Two of his brothers died during a Hollow attack, and his second sister passed away from illness not long after. These deaths made him vow to become strong enough to protect his family, and he prayed to Mimihagi every day to grant him the strength he needed to protect everyone he cherishes.

He was in Rangiku's year, but the two didn't really interact until they ended up in the same division.

He ended up in Thirteenth Division, where he learned to manage his anger issues and [under Jushiro and Kaien's leadership] adopted the philosophy that true strength comes from the bonds one makes rather than brute strength or talent. Until then, he basically thought 'What good are bonds if I don't the strength to protect them?' He'd been so focused on becoming stronger through fighting and harnessing his spiritual potential that he hadn't realised he'd been growing distant form his family.

He got transferred to Tenth Division upon Kaien's recommendation, as he thought he'd be a good for the division (in terms of personal goals and personality).

He's known Toshiro since the latter came to the Tenth Division. They've been on numerous missions together, and he saved his future captain during a battle against Huge Hollows. He has the scar on his bicep to prove it.

While working together as seated officers, Minagawa saw some of himself in Toshiro, but also saw the inverse of his own situation - rather than strive to obtain the power to protect those he cares about, Toshiro had immense power he needed to reign in in order to keep those he cared about safe.

When Toshiro became a captain, their relationship changed. Once Mingawa would treat him almost like a younger brother, but now it's more like friendly workmates. Every now and then he goes back to their 'old routine' though.

He actually doesn't have all that much to do most of the time, as Toshiro is too much of a hard worker. He's often tried to get his captain to let him complete some of the paperwork for him, fearing (like many in the division) he's overworking himself. For the most part, he checks in on subordinates, oversees training, and assigns Shinigami/patrols in the Rukongai and World of the Living. Rangiku convinces Mingawa to loosen up a little when he's working too hard and come drinking with her if she can't get the lieutenants or captains to go with her.

He has a pet parakeet who lives in his room named Taiyo. On his breaks and in his spare time, he takes Taiyo out and wonders around the division with him on his shoulder. He was a gift from Minagawa's family to congratulate him on becoming third seat.

He lost his left pinkie and ring fingers in the TYBW arc during the second invasion (the pinkie is completely gone, while he still has up to the second knuckle of his ring finger). Twelfth Division supplied him with a special glove that has prosthetic fingers within and ensures can still perform kido spells that require both hands.

I've written a lot for him here, and yet he's only made a cameo in one fic! XD I'll see if I can include him in my next one.

In appearance, he looks like his in his late twenties or early thirties and has slightly tanned skin, thick and wavy hair with a shortish fringe over one side of his face (in terms of colour, I've imagined him with black hair but also dark red hair, so who knows, maybe he got a dye job at one point), dark coloured eyes, and he wears a few things in his left wrist, include a woven bracelet his youngest sister made. He has several scars, all of which aren't visible when he wears his uniform except for one that runs from edge of his right eyebrow and angles to end near his ear (he got this from a Hollow and was lucky to survive).

In To know Love, Toshiro observes that he glances at an officer from the Thirteenth Division named Mako. Could this be love? ;D

He's actually shown up in the anime! Okay, well, not quite, but I got a shock when I rewatched the scene where Toshiro asks to be trained in zanjutsu and saw a background character that looks so much like how I imagined him.

Kenichi Hanae: Tenth Division's fourth seat. He appears in Petrichor.

He grew up in one of the higher districts and was adopted by a couple who run a restaurant. His family comprises of his mother, father, his grandfather, and an older brother.

Before he became a Shinigami, he worked with this parents in the restaurant and learned how to cook. Because of this, he's ended up as one of the divisions best cooks, though he rarely gets to show it off because his rank requires him to stay away from the kitchen.

He's taken many division members to his family's restaurant, including Toshiro and Rangiku.

In appearance, he appears to be in his late thirties with an olive skintone and looks like some BLEACH background characters, so keep picking!

Furakawa: Tenth Division's ninth seat. He appears in It's Been a While, where he may or may have not made a not-so-great lunch for his sick captain.

If I had to pick a given name for him, it'd be Atsuto, spelt 篤人 and together the characters supposedly meaning 'fervent/kind/serious/deliberate, person'.

He's an anxious and sensitive person, often startled when something suddenly happens.

He failed to get into the Academy four times, but managed to scrape in on his fifth attempt.

He has two childhood friends back in the Rukongai. He became a Shinigami so he could provide for them with the money he earns. He keeps in contact with them through writing and infrequent visits.

He, along with the majority of the division, notice the connection between his captain and Momo. He supports them for sure, but he gets more nervous than usually when he sees them together. One time he walked in on the two them having a chat, and he apologized profusely and rushed out of the room.

He's a not a good cook.

He looks like most BLEACH background character, so take hour pick again!

Narita: one of Tenth Division's eleventh seats. She makes a cameo in Petrichor.

Never thought of a first name for her, but I think Ageha would be a good fit (spelt 愛華羽 and [according to my searches] the characters together mean 'affection, flower/petal/splendor, feathers').

She's an empathetic soul, and her friends back in the Ruokngai feared she wouldn't be a good fit as a Shinigami due to the violence she'd have to experience. However, if it's to protect souls, she isn't afraid to fight.

She applied for Fourth Division, but ended up in Tenth due her kido skills not being up to Fourth Division's standards. She still hopes to be transferred to there one day, but in the meantime focuses on improving her kido.

She likes to play shogi and practices ikebana in her spare time. She gives finished bouquets to her friends or Rangiku has them displayed around the division.

She's good friends with Fifth Division's Yumi Takagaki, who she met at the Academy. She's actually pretty friendly with everyone in the division, no one has anything bad to say about her.

In appearance, she looks like she's in her early to mid twenties and has long, black, straight hair she keeps in a side ponytail on one shoulder and blue eyes. The closest character that comes to her in appearance is [an older looking] Momo Yaoyorozu from Boku No Hero Academia.

And that's all as far as I can remember! If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for taking the time to read it all the way through! i appreciate any and all thoughts on these characters of course, or if you have some of your own characters, I'd love to read about them! :D

#toshiro hitsugaya #momo hinamori #a little bit of #hitsuhina #shinji hirako #rangiku matsumoto #tenth division #fifth division #bleach #original characters

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gracemyheart · 1 year

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List Game: The Sera Myu Soap-Opera about your life

After seeing this old post of mine, I decided to revive this thing and that is what I do now.

Just imagine a soap-opera about your life but the people starring in there are actually Myu-Characters :O So go to this randomizer and list 15 Sera Myu characters, then randomize and see what you get!

(This ranomizer actually made me very gay again lol I should’ve added more boys xD update: after replacing some actresses with some actors on the list, I am still gay and all the male actors were either my boss or plotting to kill me that’s life, people, that’s life, Missi and Centi even stayed the same lmao)

So starring in “my life - the soap-opera” are:

1. Your mum/dad: Kazuma Inoue as Death Vulcan [LOL]

2. Your sibling: Miki Kawasaki as Kaolinite (<3) [O-NEE-SAMA!!]

3. Your grandma/grandpa: Yuuta Mochizuki as ..Yuuta Mochizuki [wasted potential lol but a badass grandpa for sure]

4. Haunts you: Ayana Kinoshita as Michiru / Sailor Neptune [nooo, the revenge for hating on NewMyu xD]

5. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: Hiroko Mori as Loof Merrow [ok I’m gay for the Drama Queen I guess xD]

6. Your ex: Kazuko Ono as Lamia [nO why did we break up?????]

7. Your best friend: Yuuji Hirota as Dark Plasman (SKSD+K) [Drama Queen as gf and Drama Boi as best friend, this show is gonna be a comedy drama]

8. Proposed to you: Tomoko Inami as Mistress 9 [oh shit, but at least is this a world that is fine with gay marriages I guess]

9. Your boss: Hikari Ono as Vampiru [what kind of company is she the boss of?]

10. The random person you met at the bar: Mio Nunokawa as scary af Tellu [interesting. is she trying to poison me?]

11. Your rival: Sayaka Okamura as Snow Kaguya [ok so Snow Kaguya is into Mistress 9 or my gf I guess??? LOL]

12. Gave you your first kiss: Hisano Akamine as Ami / Sailor Mercury [looks like I am really into girls xD]

13. Drunk and singing karaoke with: Ado Endou as Centi/Hanako Hoshino [I CAN SEE THAT. I probably met her with Mio-Tellu in the bar and we went to karaoke afterwards]

14. Wants to kill you: Yuhka Asami as Michiru/ Sailor Neptune [Guess she’s plotting along with Ayana then]

15. Gave you your favourite dessert: Ryuuji Kasahara as Gilles de Rais [wasted potential again but thank you are you working at a bar or cafe or something]

#sera myu #sera myu tag game #idk how to tag this #sailor moon musical #randomizer list game

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mirukuaridraws · 4 years

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A little draw of Kakashi, Obito and Rin in a day off with Tomoko Hoshino by writer and artist 27 and Keisuke Gekko by Lang Noi.

#the sea and stars #Kakashi Hatake #Tomoko Hoshino #Obito Uchiha #Rin Nohara #Need to practice #perpective #and coloring #Obitomo #ship sailed and you can't change my mind #Keisuke Gekko

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nartothelar · 5 years

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A comic commission for @writer-and-artist27 of Shinsou and their oc, Tomoko. The comic is based off a chapter of their fanfic, Chocolate Seashell!

#commission #hoshino tomoko #hitoshi shinsou #bnha shinsou #bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #fanart #bnha fanart #art commission #comic

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cyb-by-lang · 4 years

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Leaning On Each Other (Remix)

This is a while later than I expected to get it finished, but here is @writer-and-artist27‘s birthday gift. She asked for a Kei-style take on this minific she wrote a while ago, so I did a full remix.

Apologies for making it a remix instead of the requested Kei's POV of this exact scene.

“I’m telling you, the difference is all in the wrist,” Kei said, holding out a kunai as though it was a katana. She spun it between her fingers as soon as her demonstration was over. “I mean, imagine this about four times as long in the handle and with ten times as much blade, but the point still stands.”

“You’d have to get me a bokken and show me directly if you want that to make sense,” said Obito, shaking his head slightly. “Rin?”

Rin shrugged, though her eyes didn’t quite leave the blade. “The blades I deal with are even shorter. I don’t really use them to stab people outside of a medical context. If you’re stabbing someone with a scalpel, something’s gone wrong,” Rin said, even as Kei made the kunai disappear into the holster on her thigh.

“Like in the flying clipboard story?” Obito asked.

“I still don’t know the actual story behind that,” Kei said.

Rin nodded along, but only smiled mysteriously when both of her friends in this conversation turned interrogative stares her way. “It’s funnier if I don’t tell you.”

On the opposite side of the couch, Kakashi made an agreeing noise, then flipped to the next page in his book. Kei didn’t know for sure what he was reading, other than noticing earlier that the cover art was entirely in grayscale and looked kind of gloomy. If Kei had been the one reading, she probably wouldn’t have paid enough attention to the conversation to know where she was supposed to make obligatory listening sounds.

Tomoko emerged from the kitchen at this point, flopping down on the couch between Kei and Obito. Kei raised a hand to keep her head from hitting the wall, and the three of them shuffled around a bit to accommodate her.

“So, done working for now?” Kei asked, silently making sure that all of her weapons were stowed. Sure, she’d left her sword at home, but no shinobi was ever fully unarmed. It was a truth universally acknowledged that a kunai somewhere unfortunate would ruin anyone’s day.

“You know me,” Tomoko replied, not noticing the shinobi weapons-check or not saying so. She leaned against Kei’s shoulder without hesitation. “Just for now.”

“That’s what you always say,” Obito said, leaning forward over his knees to get a better look at their faces. “You should’ve let us help.”

“There was batter on the ceiling last time, wasn’t there?” Rin asked. She’d only heard this story second-hand and the details changed in the telling because no one wanted to admit they’d been the one to start shit.

“That was Kakashi’s fault,” Obito said instantly. “And we were at Kei’s house, so we only got banned there, so it doesn’t count!”

“Getting banned from any kitchen still disqualifies you from going into a professional one, I think.”

“Focus, team,” Kakashi said, but mostly sounded like it was a wordier version of the iconic Uchiha “hn.” He certainly didn’t put any force behind the order.

“Okay, okay.” Kei nudged Tomoko with her elbow. “So, what’s up? Besides a clear need for a nap.”

“Nothing but the ceiling,” Tomoko replied.

“No, really?” Kei drawled automatically. “Would’ve never guessed. Congrats on your first well-timed pun, though.”

Tomoko pouted. “It got your attention, even if it’s a horrible one. So I’ll try to be punny more often.”

“Tomo-chan!” Obito said, shaking his head.

“I don’t regret it. Fight me.”

Kei considered her options carefully. A bad pun used in verbal combat came with a number of acceptable responses, but Tomoko wasn’t Hayate—who Kei would have already shoved off the couch by this point. Possibly backflipped him over the top of it, trusting his combat training to handle the landing. Tomoko needed more delicate handling.

Therefore, Kei said, “Obito wouldn’t fight you if you paid him, puns or otherwise.”

“It was a joke!” Tomoko protested, half-sunk into a combination of Kei’s jacket and the plush back of the couch. Her voice was a little muffled and pouty as a result.

And Kei occasionally pretended she didn’t know about those conversational ripostes solely to exasperate Tomoko. She wasn’t sure Tomoko had caught on yet.

From cross the table, Rin leaned forward and said, “You need to work on your delivery, Tomo. That landed pretty flat.”

“And the Earth is round and rotating on a crooked axis, sue me,” Tomoko said childishly in return, refusing to raise her head from her new resting spot. “I’m trying and I don’t wanna move.”

“It’s almost like overworking has totally foreseeable consequences,” Kei mused, her voice lilting to take the sting out of her words.

Tomoko paused, thinking on it for a second. “…Would you have me any other way?”

The answer was immediate. “Nope.”

“Good.” A smile replaced the pout. Tomoko’s habit of puffing her cheeks out to pout mostly made Kei want to poke her. “What’s up with you?”

“Not much.” Kei shrugged as best she could with Tomoko’s head on her shoulder. “To make a long story short, Kakashi doesn’t want to give input on my totally half-assed kenjutsu lesson. Obito and Rin are being good friends and pretending they know what the hell I’m talking about.”

There was a crinkle signaling the turning of a page as Kakashi went back to reading.

“Okay, just for that? Rin and I are going to talk about things that aren’t swords,” Obito said with a comically exaggerated huff. “See how you like it.”

Kei rolled her eyes. “Oh no. Traitors, et cetera.”

Rin’s smile was helplessly fond. “All right, all right. No more sniping until we get you both on a practice range.” She turned her head. “So, Obito, did I tell you what happened when Akihito-shishō caught the nurses smuggling candy—”

Rin’s tempting gossip drew Obito’s attention wholly, which was a good indicator that everyone was indeed done with the sword story.

Tomoko turned her head so that her face was finally angled up toward Kei’s. “You know I was asking about you, health-wise?”

There were times when it seemed as though Tomoko did little else. The life of a ninja was like riding a rollercoaster with a rickety, rusted track that didn’t deserve to have so many twists and turns. Especially for how unreliable it was. Their lifestyle was a major risk to life and limb.

Kei didn’t say any of that. Instead: “Yeah, I know.”

Tomoko thumped her head against Kei’s shoulder. “You’re my best friend in the whole wide world, y’know.”

“I know,” Kei said by rote. Reincarnation time buddies! Who hopefully weren’t going to destroy the universe by accidentally turning something into a paradox.

Another bonk. “Nagareboshi Café will always be open for you, y’know.”

“I know, Tomo.” Mostly because Kei had enough people in her life that she’d never forget it now. Being able to find half her social group there on a given day made the place a landmark, even if it wasn’t also a homey spot on its own.

Sounding a little strangled now, Tomoko added after a short pause, “So then, Kei?”

“Hm?”

“Whenever you need help, whenever you’re down, you can call me up, y’know. I don’t know how well I can fix things, but I’ll try. I’ll always try.”

Kei sighed. It was half from fond exasperation, but half from genuine frustration. There was always a part of her that utterly rejected the idea of pushing any of her emotional burdens onto Tomoko. Kei had volunteered practically from the start to chase whatever means of gaining power she could, all so she could make sure her precious people were safe. That was not the choice Tomoko had made. She’d never needed to, and Kei almost needed her to stay out of the blast radius.

“Tomo, you know I’m not good at asking for—”

Bonk.

Kei went silent, raising an eyebrow in a silent question as Tomoko stared back.

“Just listen, okay?” Tomoko rarely demanded direct, sincere statements toward Kei, who was equipped with a bone-deep inclination to deflect and dismiss what she viewed as excessive verbal reassurance. “No matter what happens, no matter what you end up doing, I’ll stay with you. To the end of our days.”

Kei bit down on the urge to interrupt.

“I care about you, y’know. So when you need it, let me help you like you help me. Just get that memorized.”

Kei sighed again, reaching up to pat Tomoko’s head. “I’ll remember that.”

When she could. It wouldn’t be as easy as Tomoko made it sound, but perhaps it could be, eventually.

And that was when Obito bounced onto the couch hard enough to make Tomoko briefly airborne. She landed with a surprised “eep” with her weight still mostly on Kei’s side, but turned to face Obito.

“Obi?” Tomoko said, startled.

“Nice of you to drop in,” Kei said over Tomoko’s head. It was so much easier to downplay any surprises when she could track everyone’s location within the room. Also, she’d seen Obito move out of the corner of her eye because he definitely wasn’t being stealthy.

“Your conversation looked like it needed crashing,” Obito said lightly. “It looked heavy even from where I was standing.” He tilted his head to one side, tucking his legs underneath him. “Tomo, is Kei influencing you? Are you gonna start all your conversations with puns now? Please say no.”

“It was my first try, Obi,” Tomoko soothed, reaching over with her right hand to rest against the side of his scalp. “I can try a different joke.”

Kei shifted her weight so that Tomoko ended up leaning more Obito’s way.

“I don’t know, I think the debut worked,” Rin said, settling back in at her spot. Whatever she and Obito had talked about must’ve scared him back into this conversation. She added to Tomoko specifically, “Just maybe relax a little and let them come naturally.”

“Wordplay and swordplay are both about timing,” Kei offered, “so I could probably help.”

“I can see you being a bad influence, you know,” Obito said. “Even if you’re trying to be all underhanded about it.”

“You’re shinobi,” Tomoko said, “Everything’s sneaky and underhanded! I could’ve sworn bad puns are how eye roll considering the family-friend thing.”

Obito groaned, defeated. “Kei, you had one job!”

“If she’s not making improvised bombs in her bedroom, I’m still coming out ahead,” Kei told him. “And she’s not. I think?”

“I’m not!” Tomoko said, half-frantic at the turn. “Just baked goods, like usual!”

“Oh, if that’s the breaking point,” Obito grumbled.

Tomoko frowned thoughtfully. She rested her hand against the side of Obito’s face in apology, then said, “I’ll hold off on the puns and you can have a batch of cupcakes later. Will that be better?”

This time, there was a hum of approval. Obito closed his eyes and leaned into Tomoko’s hand like a cat, mollified for now.

That’d probably last until the next time one of Kei’s friends opened their mouths. Peace reigned until the next half-joking argument in the life of Team Minato. And most of their associates.

“Can I join in?” Rin said, though she was already cramming herself into the space on Kei’s other side with a medical textbook in her lap. Kei didn’t bother wondering where she’d gotten it from; at some point, pulling a “nothing up my sleeve” routine felt like it was expected. “This looks like fun.”

“There’s cookies near the stove if you want to grab those first, Ricchan,” Tomoko said. Her chakra felt floaty with contentment. “Just to help with the studying you have there. The cookies are sugar and snickerdoodle.”

Rin’s smile widened. “Maybe later?” She still absently opened the front cover of her book, glancing at it before leaning against Kei’s other shoulder. “This feels nice right now.”

“Just make yourself at home, I guess,” Kei said with a toss of her head, settling farther down in the couch cushions. She shuffled to handle both hers and Rin’s weights before considering. “What about you, Kakashi?”

“Hn.” He instead disappeared briefly into the kitchen, out of easy spotting range thanks to the movement limitations of the human neck. “There’s not enough space for five people on that couch. There really wasn’t for four, but apparently we’re stacking like apartment blocks,” he judged when he returned, but he settled at the group’s feet and set the plate on the table in front of them all. “I brought the cookies.”

At this point, Tomoko started humming.

Rin reached forward and retrieved her cookies, passing out others at random. Kakashi demurred, returning his attention to his book, and wrinkling his nose at the thought of eating such sweet things of his free will. He was content just basking in his friends’ company.

“Just eat and relax?” Tomoko offered, passing a cookie from Rin to Obito. “We don’t have anything going on today, so let’s pass the time like this.”

Kei leaned her head back against the top of the couch, listening with half an ear to the world around her. With sight out of the way, she could focus on her friends’ contentment through her chakra sense and live in the moment.

Tomoko’s voice rose over the impromptu cookie party:

“Dream of anything;

I’ll make it all come true.

Everything you need

Is all I have for you.

I’m forever

Always by your side.

Whenever you need a friend,

I’m never far behind.”

Obito shifted and the couch dipped under his weight. Felt like he was reaching for his next dose of sugar already. The plate scraped across the table. “Could you sing that a bit louder, Tomo-chan? I want to hear.”

“Eh?” A sudden wave of shyness swept through Tomoko. “You sure?”

“We’ve all heard you sing before, Tomo,” said Kei, keeping her eyes shut. “No pressure.”

Rin’s sun-on-water chakra perked up along with her voice as she said, “You were the one to say we should relax, right?”

There was a brief back-and-forth between the boys—banter so played-out it was almost entirely fond. Amusement passed through each of them like an electric current.

Tomoko’s voice rose again.

“If the stars all fall,

When there’s no more light,

And the moon should crumble,

It will be alright.”

Being here, with these precious people, would tide Kei over through their next absence. With the life she and her friends lived, that separation was inevitable. There was always something else coming down the pipeline and eventually disturbing their peace, but that was the future.

This was now.

“Don’t you worry about the dark,

I will light up the night with the love in my heart.

I will burn like the sun,

I will keep you safe and warm.

Like the smell of a rose on a summer’s day,

I will be there to take all your fears away.

With a touch of my hand,

I will turn your life to gold.”

Kei seared the moment into her memory, to keep it like a light against the darkness still to come.

#the sea and stars #snippet #snippets #keisuke gekko #hoshino tomoko #obito uchiha #kakashi hatake #rin nohara #team minato

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wingblade1357 · 5 years

Photo

Happy Birthday, Os!! Commissioned by @writer-and-artist27!! It’s a little bit early, but I hope you like it! @cyb-by-lang, @owlsofstarlight

#naruto #naruto ocs #hoshino tomoko #otoha #keisuke #commission #stay tune for the story by vy!

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lovingempress · 1 year

Text

For Vy-chan~ @writer-and-artist27

I forgot to post these for so long huhuhuhuu 😭 just some other faces of your girl from when I first started this piece, and a bit near the end before the final edits. They were so fun to experiment with, and they came out so cute~! It’d be a shame to hide them away forever. Can’t believe I haven’t posted them until now agh 🤦🏻‍♀️

Tbh, I really liked the light blue background I started with (it’s the “Hoshino Tomoko” color in my head nowadays lol), and I wish I kept it somehow. The sunny background with clear blue skies really fits our sunshine girl. It wasn’t working with the texture I was trying for, but in its own way, I think the plain blue was really nice. This starry version I finished with was also really cool- really emulated that “Hoshino” glow ehe~ for the finale I added some glow lighter purple in the middle, was kinda going for galaxy-vibes, I guess? I had issues with the coloring of the letters tbh; once I added the lighter purple, I couldn’t keep the yellow lettering. I tried all sorts of colors, but the most visible was this orange brown, so I stuck with it as a callback to Obito 🥽👍🏼

#fanart #my art #hoshino tomoko #writer-and-artist27 #progress pieces #me things #process pics #god o forgot what tags I was using for all this hjsksksk #you can tell I love my saturation lol #art process #THAT WAS THE TAG

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writer-and-artist27 · 10 months

Note

⭐star⭐ writer's choice. have fun talking vy vy :)

Thankie, Osie ⭐ Now, what to comment on...

Actually, that reminds me. The first chapter of The Sea and Stars - I remember the final lines of dialogue were really important to me because it was when I was just starting to get to know you and Lang, Osie. You both knew Kingdom Hearts in a way, and for Tomoko and Kei to really know each other as "reincarnation buddies", it felt right referencing the opening dialogue from Kingdom Hearts 2. Especially when I still have fond memories of the game.

“Tomoko, I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like, is any of this for real? Or not?” “It’s real to me.”

That exchange still reads so well a few years later.

#vy says something #writer thoughts #windwardstar #the sea and stars #hoshino tomoko #keisuke gekko #ask game #asks #thankie friend #nice things #friend things #fanfic director's commentary

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langwrites · 5 years

Photo

Wherein Kei and Tomoko encounter the Neighborhood Obito-Pranking Cat, with no idea of his true identity.

[image description: two girls lying around making faces at a content cat. end description]

I still haven’t figured out how to do colors properly in Clip Studio Paint, so here ya go, @writer-and-artist27. Happy late birthday!

#Keisuke Gekko #hoshino tomoko #the sea and stars #cat #langdraws #lang art #catch your breath fanfic

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windwardstar · 6 years

Text

Silent Feathers

Part 2 of your (super early) b-day present @writer-and-artist27

(8k, Naruto SI Fanfic. Also a Sea and Stars Fanfic.)

There are somethings that scar the mind forever, events that rewire the brain and affect its very structure. Soul scars I had called them. Something, that like the very essence of who a person was, would carry over across lifetimes.

Turned out I was right.

Not that it made me feel any better, not when I came to consciousness unable to move, confined, surrounded by liquid I couldn’t escape from. Some things transferred over apparently, and my hypersensitivity to touch and fear of confinement counted.

It didn’t take long for me to meltdown.

I was still autistic. I was still me.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out where I was, what was going on, that instead of simply disappearing into the entropy of the universe, I was being reborn, flesh and blood, with all my memories intact. I’d survived so much shit in my life, apparently survival was just written into my soul as well. Not even death could really kill me.

Fortunately the inside of a womb was blessedly free of loud noises and bright lights. But the sense of liquid touching me, constant, incessant, was too much. The feel of something new too, energy flowing through my body like electricity. It was the energy from when I was manic, but it was constant, tangible, and never went away, even when I was so exhausted I couldn’t stay awake.

I stimmed, in what ways my developing fetus of a body allowed me, and paid as much attention to the outside world as I could. My new parents spoke to me frequently, and something about growing a new brain made my mind exceptionally good at figuring out what they spoke.

Ah, to have the neuroplasticity and language acquisition skills of an infant. I was learning Japanese! At least they provided me with the human interaction required to keep my solitary confinement from being isolation.

I still melted down. I still kicked and squirmed and cried. All things babies were supposed to do, so at least I didn’t face the ableism I had as an adult in my previous life.

At least my parents found it amusing. “Wow! Such a strong kicker! You could grow up and be a ninja!” they’d say when I flailed my arms and poked back when they poked me.

At least all the meltdowns made me exhausted so I slept. I think they appreciated that. When I went still and didn’t kick internal organs. It let them rest.

At least their voices and excitement and constant talking to me kept me up to day on my impending arrival. I’m not sure who was more excited for me to be born, me, or them.

I do have to say, their sheer joy at my existence, the knowledge I was loved already, it was healing. I loved them back, fiercely, the moment their blurry blurry faces came into my existence.

They named me Otoha. They were Haha and Chichi, mom and dad. Our last name was Kuroki. They owned a bookstore. Kuroki Books. (I read everything I could and felt very much like Matilda.)

They taught me a lot more words after that. And I learned them, my brain soaking up everything like a sponge. It was a dream come true. I’d be able to learn everything.

I already knew how a lot of the world worked, and I was still me. I was also Otoha, loved child of Haha and Chichi. I knew if I had soiled my diaper or was hungry my parents would take care of me. I knew that. They loved me and were attentive. So I didn’t make much of a fuss. I didn’t get scared when they left me alone. I pointed when I needed something. I didn’t make them play fetch while I learned about gravity and object permanence.

Somehow though, playing peekaboo is always fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re the baby. Anyone who plays with you, they’re excited, and happy. It was an odd experiment, a sociologists dream, of being a baby and seeing how people suddenly become softer at my presence, where stern old men in green vests break into smiles and funny faces when noone but me can see.

Overall, I was a pretty calm baby. I let them sleep. Through the night. They were excited about that. Everyone else was really jealous. But hey, it was the least I could do when they took care of my every need, and as a baby, I wasn’t capable of doing it myself.

Other things they were proud of: I learned to sit up, crawl, and walk early. I listened when people told me things. I ate my food - when I wasn’t be incredibly picky and finickey, but I loved my vegetables. I even ate carrots! I loved carrots! Nobody loved carrots!

Things that worried them though: I babbled, I picked up words and repeated them, and did so as soon as I could get my mouth to cooperate, but surrounded by a sensation I hadn’t habituated to, I was nearly nonverbal. I rarely spoke. I stimmed. And I remained quiet. And they worried. When I didn’t keep up with my peers in speaking, when I continued to listen, but not respond, only speaking nonsense syllables and sounds, they worried.

I told them not to, that sometimes it was just hard, but they worried.

Still, I excelled in other areas. My balance and hand-eye coordination was something I had to relearn, but with the patience of an already adult mind, I mastered walking and running and jumping and climbing. The last two made Haha and Chichi get really worried about me, constantly trying to keep me from hurting myself, but I wanted to learn.

The green vests and black and navy uniforms. The headbands with a metal brace and a leaf on them. I knew what those meant. And I knew where it meant I was. Sometimes Haha and Chichi would put them on and disappear for a while, but one of them always remained at home.

Five years of my previous life had been steeped in the Naruto Universe thanks to my best friend. I didn’t know everything, and there was a ton I didn’t know or understand, but I knew enough.

I knew enough to know the ceaseless current of energy running through my body was chakra. That I was in Konoha. That regardless of how I ended up here, I had the knowledge, and thus the obligation, to change things for the better.

I just had to figure out when I was. And what version.

-------

Unlike with my old body, my new one wasn’t disabled by genetics. I won the genetic lottery this time around. I could run, I could climb, I could swim, I could skip, I could tumble and fight. I could do anything I wanted.

I could be a ninja.

Which, if I were to help change things for the better, I’d need to be anyway.

I was lucky, I guess, that my new parents were ninja. I was super lucky that Haha as a kunoichi had been trained how to use fans. In my last life, they had been a special interest. In this life, they still were. And I got to learn how to fight with them! Tessenjutsu? Hell yeah!

Anyway, having ninja parents gave me a headstart on everything. And with my desire to learn? Well, I guess I became another one of those child geniuses who would garner attention.

So, that was how I ended up handing my parents the academy entrance form with everything already filled out.

(My handwriting was so much better this time round! Lucky me!)

I was young, five, but it was the same age I had entered kindergarten in my other life, and unlike last time, I knew how to spell my name. And well, basically a lot more things. I was also more than prepared.

So, that was how I, Otoha Kuroki, walked in for my first day at school. Soft shirt, stretchy pants, and my notebook in my arms because my backpack was filled with books. (At least the nice thing about my parents owning a bookstore was they knew where to get new ones, and so long as I didn’t break the spine, they could sell the books after I finished reading them. I think they ended up buying and selling used books as well to keep up with my reading.)

I’d always been called a genius, always been considered smart, so when I effortlessly passed every test with flying colors, I simply looked to fly higher.

I wanted to learn though. Which was why I remained in class while the other “natural geniuses” quickly appeared and graduated. I think I saw his white hair once? I’m not really sure. People talked about him, but I didn’t pay that much attention. I was a little busy reading. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that was the ever famous and popular Kakashi Hatake.

Still, there was only so long the academy could entertain me, and only so long I could put off graduation when every adult said I was ready. And, well, I mean, when I purposefully did the math and got just enough questions wrong on the final graduation tests to keep myself from graduating so I could keep studying… well, it wasn’t a popular decision and everyone knew what was happening.

I’m pretty sure they decided I’d graduate before I did. I was too smart. I was too skilled. I was wasting my talent. The village was wasting a valuable resource by letting me remain in the academy. My parents were urging me to pursue things that would challenge me. Haha had an anbu tattoo on her arm, so she knew a thing about ambition and challenge.

Which, I guess means I shouldn’t have been surprised when ANBU showed an interest. And it made sense. I was exceptional, and I wasn’t tied to any clans or village powers. I had been trained since birth by a -possibly retired- ANBU agent. Otoha Kuroki was a ripe plum for the picking.

As for my genin team? Well, I met them after classes ended for the day. We were in different years, but once we became genin, it didn’t matter. We were a team. And I had to meet them, and our Jonin Sensei.

So, I picked up my books and my fan - this one was metal and lace, the perfect combination of fashion and function. It also made a really really lovely sound when I opened and closed it. It was by far my favorite. And the fact I had learned nature manipulation - mine happened to be wind- to make the edge sharp enough to give people a killer papercut with just a paper fan… well. I was a huge fan of fans.

“The silent shinobi, Otoha Kuroki,” one of my teammates said, his voice clearly meant to mock me.

Shinobi? Bah. I was gonna be an airbender. A mini Avatar Kyoshi - except with just wind… a second elemental manipulation much less a third or fourth.. Yeah, not gonna happen. So I was more like a nonbinary Kyoshi Warrior who could airbend. Ok really, there’s not that good enough of an analogy. I was a shinobi trained in tessenjutsu with a wind nature manipulation.

(And I may have gone for another fan wielding person as a favorite echolalia. Get off the roof, get off the roof, get off the roof. )

I closed my fan, slipping it into my pocket and jumped down from the roof of the building to meet my new teammate. Katsuo Uchiha. 9 years old. Top of his class, except he really wasn’t. He was good at Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, but he had passed most of his written exams by copying off others. Still, at least when we took the Chunin Exam I could count on him to get the information.

Our third teammate arrived shortly after that, without any quippy comment, just silent respect. Hibiki Hyuga, 8 years old, was a branch house member and as obedient in school as he was expected to be towards the main house members. He had earned his exam scores. All of them.

And then there was me. Otoha Kuroki. 7 years old. Technically top of the class, and functionally mute. I could talk, sometimes, but it was easiest just to let people think I couldn’t. They tended to react better when it was an “all the time” thing than a “some of the time” thing.

Our team was loaded. If someone wanted to stack the deck during a chunin exam. Well, our team would do it. An Uchiha with their sharingan (which had developed early for reasons I immediately wanted to punch someone’s lights out for) and a Hyuga with the byakugan. And then a clanless ninja who wore glasses. Guess someone had to pick up the slack for the great eyesight. But hey, I could hold them onto my face with chakra via the leaf trick!

“Oh good, you’re all here!” A loud boisterous voice called out, right as a burst of smoke made me hide my nose in my shirt collar. Our sensei, Akemi Sarutobi, appeared in the space between my two teammates, slamming her hands down on each of their shoulders. “We need to get to know each other, so we’re gonna have a chat.” She grinned, and turned her head to look at my two very unimpressed teammates. “I need coffee. Shall we?”

All three of us stared at her. She winked at me.

“Nagareboshi Cafe,” she said, “don’t be late,” and disappeared in another puff of smoke and burst of chakra.

-----

While Kastuo Uchiha took off, loudly proclaiming he would get there first, I simply turned and ran. Easily crossing the streets and dodging through the crowd in a game I had made up before the academy as training, I reached the cafe before either of my teammates. Although that was likely because I knew the cafe and I’m not sure either of them did.

So, I perched on a roof across the street, in clear view of the table Akemi-Sensei had claimed, and waited to see who arrived. And I pulled my fan out, stimming with it.

Sck schk schk schk

My Hyuga teammate arrived soon after I did, politely asking for directions and bowing when he received them. The Uchiha arrived long enough after that I had considered simply going in without waiting to see if he made it.

I hopped off the roof the moment his posture shifted and he noticed the cafe with the large sign out front.

“Next time you get lost, Katsuo, ask for directions. Getting help isn’t weakness,” Akemi-Sensei said as we entered. “And Otoha, you may be good at gathering information, but you need to learn to share it with your allies. Intel does nothing if the people who need it don’t have it.”

I nodded, and sat down at the table in the spot between sensei and Hibiki.

“You are all excellent shinobi on your own,” Akemi-Sensei said, as she handed out the menus. “But you are on a team now. You have missions. You need to learn to work together and use your skills for the benefit of all.”

She paused as the waitress came over, taking our orders. I pointed at the menu to communicate, and the others spoke. Once our drinks, and treats, arrived, (green tea and strawberry mochi for me) our sensei pulled out files and paper.

“These are your files,” she said, handing one to each of us, “I want you to look at them, recognize your strengths and weaknesses, then tell me how you can work together as a team.”

While the pianist, Tomoko, the daughter of the cafe owners, played in the background, and her chakra flared in my peripheral senses, I opened my file. That friendship was a previous life. This life was written down on paper right in front of me.

Otoha Kuroki

I skimmed over my height and weight. I was small for my age. Teeny tiny. At least puberty promised a growth spurt in a few years. But both my parents were short in this life as well, so genetics meant my growth spurt didn’t promise too much.

My stats were… well, I thought I’d be better. But I guess talent was relative. Compared to academy students, I was great. Compared to the rest of the shinobi, I was well, a genin. My parent had shinobi, which had given me more of an advantage than civilian kids. I’d been a natural at manipulating chakra, thanks to being hypersensitive to it and everything else, but I was small. My strength and stamina were abysmal. I was fast, but again, speed was relative. I was fast for a seven year old, but an adult could easily run circles around me.

Ninjutsu: 3. Thanks to my ability to do wind release no doubt. Taijutsu: 2.5 Thanks to applying myself and getting an early start. My tessenjutsu also likely bumped up this score.

Genjutsu: 2. That probably should have actually been lower. My chakra control was good, but I still had the habit of accidentally dispelling my own genjutsu.

Intelligence: 4. Thanks, Brain.

Strength: 1 But hey, I could do a pull-up. I could do a lot of them actually. Woo ninja muscles.

Speed: 2. Just wait until I get longer legs.

Stamina: 1.5 It was probably realistically higher, I just went through more of my chakra than others having meltdowns. But, thankfully those got fewer the older I got.

Hand Signs: 3. Well, at least stimming by making them helped me somewhere.

Total: 19

But stats didn’t show the whole picture. They didn’t explain why I had the scores I did. They didn’t cover the ability to retain and recall anything I read or saw or heard. They didn’t cover my prodigic chakra control. They didn’t cover my personality. They didn’t cover my ability to cope.

The notes that followed it did. They read like what I’d imagine a CIA file would, with lines blacked out and all that. Except nothing was actually blacked out.

It ran down a list of observations that clearly hadn’t been made solely by my academy instructors. They had the notes from my academy instructors, things they would have easily gathered by observing me in class and reading my exams.

The rest, they were from other sources. Someone, or many someones, had been observing me. A quick scan of the area, searching for any chakra flares didn’t turn up anyone suspicious, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. After all, if they were careless enough to be caught by a kid, they weren’t very good.

It covered my independent studies. My breakthrough on applying my nature manipulation to senbon, kunai, and fans. In learning a few wind release jutsu. The hours I had spent after school and homework practicing my tessenjutsu.

A handful of words were scattered about. Key words. Things they were looking for in potential recruits. Resolve. Determination. Adaptability. Skilled. Talent. Sensor. Observant. Dedication. Discipline. Ingenuity. Innovative. Superior Memory. Resiliency. Things that would make me an exceptional shinobi. Things that showed I was already able to cope with the violence and death that came with being a shinobi. Which was half just living for two decades in my old life in literal hell, and half having been given access to actual therapy. Mental Health. It’s Important.

It didn’t take me long to read through it, and I looked up at my Jonin-Sensei while my teammates finished looking over theirs so we could swap.

She was buff, and wore her sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Headband over her bicep. Her spiky brown hair was short, and her eyes watched all three of us for reactions.

So, this was part of the test too.

I gave a small smirk once she locked eyes with me. I know. Sensei gave me a small nod and took another sip of her coffee.

Already aware of my strengths and weaknesses, I closed the file before I leaned back and observed the room.

Tomoko, the pianist, was effortlessly playing the music by memory, and the tune tripped something in my mind, some forgotten song I’d known once upon a time. Vy, the person she had been in a previous life, had had widely different tastes in music than I did. The song she played was likely from some video game I had never played or anime I never watched but had heard clips from.

I shook the thought from my mind and resumed my study of the room, and my teammates.

Katsuo stared at his file, brow knit together and sharingan spinning. He was trying real hard to figure it out.

Look beneath the underneath.

At least he had figured out there was something more to see.

Hibiki meanwhile was staring at me. “Uh, would you like to trade files?” he asked.

I slid mine across to him. It was definitely one way to gather information, and share it.

“Wait, are you allowed to do that? Sensei!”

“Katsuo,” I said, and both my teammates turned to me. “This is about information. We have it. We share it. We don’t know each other, so this is how we learn to work as a team.” We needed to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to learn how we worked together.

“I was not aware you could talk,” Hibiki said, glancing up from my file.

“That is why we are sharing files,” I said, and glanced down at Hibiki’s file.

His intelligence and Taijutsu stood at a solid three, the rest of his stats were solid if slightly lower. What the stat block didn’t cover was his byakugan and ability to see the chakra system, to target the points. He could be more accurate than I could be with attacks. And he didn’t need a weapon to do it. The Gentle Fist Style was powerful.

“Katsuo,” I said, and held out the file to switch.

“You’re done already?” Hibiki asked.

“Perfect Memory,” I quoted from my file, and traded.

Katsuo Uchiha. His Ninjutsu was a 4. His taijutsu and genjutsu were both a 3. His stamina was a 3.5. His Hand Signs sat at a respectable 2.5. His intelligence was a 1.5. His speed and strength were low as well. But it still resulted in the highest total out of our group.

I had definitely underestimated him.

“Wow, Hibiki, your scores suuuuuuuck!” Katsuo said.

Well, tact was definitely not one of his skills.

“The total is only one point lower than yours,” I said, and flipped to the notes on his.

Sharingan. He had activated it a year ago, an in the time since then had collected an impressive list of jutsu. He had fire release. He was even more of a physical threat than Hibiki.

I was, well, I wasn't a clan kid. I didn’t have any kekkei genkai that made me stand out from the crowd with special abilities nobody else had. Theoretically, both my teammates could learn everything I could do. Hell, if we sparred enough Katsuo was likely to pick up my tessenjutsu. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t a threat. I had been trained by my parents, one of which who had definitely belonged to ANBU at some point.

But whatever those additional notes had been for, Katsuo wasn’t a good fit. He was well, loud and obvious. The notes had focused on stealth and well, not being obvious.

Hibiki wasn’t a good fit either. His personality was a little too, well, he was a doormat.

Neither of them had the additional, out of classroom notes. Nothing that couldn’t have been observed from the academy.

So, whatever the extra thing I was meant to find was only for me. My scores were the lowest, and frankly on paper I didn’t look like much of anything. I was firmly in the middle in terms of being a shinobi. But my other skills, the ones that made me stand apart. Those were the same things somebody was looking for.

I kept that bit to myself though, and shared the rest with the class.

We’d work well together. Assuming our personalities didn’t clash.

Chapter 2:

I didn’t return to Nagareboshi Cafe for a while after that. I focused on training. I did my mission. I pushed myself, I tried to find as many applications for wind release as a I could. And with a whole slew of fantasy series to pull from, I made a pretty good substitute for an airbender.

I also learned who had been watching me and what my mysterious tests over the previous months were for: ANBU. Of course, I wasn’t even eight yet. So they just watched me. And if I wanted to join them, I needed to impress them.

But, until then, I went on missions with my team and Akemi-sensei. There was a Chunin exam six months after our graduation, and while it was certainly unusual for a genin team to be entered into one that close to their graduation, well, it wasn’t unheard of. And also? We were ready.

And with tensions rising between the nations, well, Konoha wanted to appear strong. So, they allowed us. Genin, fresh out of the academy, willing and able to pass the chunin exam.

My team demolished the tests. I think I unnerved some of the people, going in knowing the tricks for the written exam. I didn’t get nervous. I didn’t show any confusion. Just calm, quiet, patience as I waited for my team members to do the work.

I also somehow got super lucky by being placed right next to one of the plants. Guess the universe decided it was already going to be a cake walk so they just gave up.

The big free for all battle survival test in the field thing, we crushed that too. It was significantly harder than going in already knowing the trick for the written test, but well, this was about skills we already had.

It was funny, I thought, as I sat watch in another village. I knew basically nothing about them, only what I had been taught in the academy. That was at least a little interesting for me. The maladaptive parts of my brain, the ones that made me hyper aware of my surroundings, made me react to any threat before I even was consciously aware of it, they made me excel.

PTSD was a survival mechanism after all. And I was right back in the environment it had rewritten my brain to survive.

Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about developing it in the field. And I’d already had two decades worth of experience coping with it, on top of learning in the ninja world. And hey, even though I’d had plenty of near death experiences in my past life, I’d actually died once, so that’s one point of experience I’m not sure too many other ninja had.

But despite my thoughts and morbid humor, I came out of the experience with a nice green flak jacket. Its weight was wonderful. Super great for pressure stimming. And making my chest flat.

I may have spent more time than anyone who wasn’t some middle school protagonist staring at myself in the mirror after that. Brown hair cut short and messy, brown eyes, glasses, and the standard shinobi uniform. I looked perfectly androgynous.

And then, I got stuck with paperwork. Which was perfectly fine with me. As Chunin Otoha Kuroki, I worked in the administrative building filling out forms, filing paperwork, generally navigating the maze of bureaucracy. I think they started liking me. I was always happy to do their paperwork. (Reading all those thing, I learned a lot. A lot of things they probably shouldn’t have let me access, but when you volunteer to do someone's paperwork they’ve put off for a month? Well, let’s just say sometimes clearance levels don’t matter.)

But with a war brewing, Konoha wouldn’t let one of their brightest minds squalor away helping make sure all the triplicate forms were actually filled out in triplicate. No.

They put me to work. I went into the field. They sent shinobi- chunin- to the borders as hostilities ramped up. I knew these skirmishes and fights would eventually result in the Third Shinobi War and I tried to get as much information as I could back to Konoha in hopes maybe someone somewhere who had died in a version I wasn’t there could live.

Somehow I just ended up with a reputation for knowing things. For learning things. I had an entire elaborate system for writing my notes in a code nobody could crack. (Did I mention English isn’t even a language in Naruto Land?) I picked up new skills and worked on creating my own.

After all, I had plenty of things in fiction to inspire me. They’d all required some kind of magic, and well, now that I had ninja-magic-bullshit powers, I could take a stab at them.

Wind release? As I said, I made a pretty good impression of an airbender. While I couldn’t technically fly, I could definitely glide with style. At least once I recreated Aang’s glider. With metal reinforcements. Temari and her fans in canon had proved the theory worked in this world. Even if she probably wouldn’t be born for another few years.

It took a bit to figure out how to make it work, and the design definitely needed more work. Not being able to use my hands was kind of a big drawback (I attempted figuring out sealless jutsu but some things you just can’t work around). But I did have one thing they probably didn’t: the knowledge of how to make things fly. I’d spent a quarter of a century in a world that had long since mastered airplanes and was working on space travel. And, unlike most people, was a nerd and knew seemingly useless things, like how to make a glider.

Turns out that knowledge wasn’t actually useless.

I could fly. Go me!

I pushed my wind release skills as far as I could, and both my mother and my fans helped tremendously in it. I could shield myself with wind from oncoming projectiles. I could clear smoke and fog. I could manipulate the air currents around me. And I could sharpen the tip of a senbon enough I could send it through the trunk of a tree and out the other side. Which was great, because as well as allowing me to play a game of pickup sticks, I could fit a whole lot more of them in a weapons pouch than kunai.

And that was all before war officially broke out.

When it did?

Being able to fly wasn’t enough. So I picked up fuinjutsu. I made exploding tags. I made bombs. I sealed them inside scrolled and released dozens and hundreds at a time. I did my best impersonation of a cactuar with 1000 needles. I moved the ninja world into modern warfare and conducted aerial bombing (ok not really, they needed more than just a single person for that). At least the enemy didn’t have anti-aircraft missiles.

I technically created a mini bag-of-holding. Well, scroll of holding. Technically it just let me store shit in seals and wasn’t an endless alternate dimension but well, I still called it that. Oh? Also? They don’t rip a hole in the fabric of the universe if you stick em inside each other. I had a certain Keisuke Gekko to thank for the inspiration to create one.

But it also allowed me to do things like pick up corpses and transport them back to ANBU R&D for study. Often a lot of corpses my team and I had been sent to kill. Enemies who posed a greater threat because they possessed unique abilities.

That got me recruited into ANBU after years of being watched, which was how the owl (that’s me!) ran into the snake.

That’s right. I landed my ass in Orochimaru’s good graces. He liked me. Eeeeee yelch.

And, to make things worse, I ended up working with him.

Otoha Kuroki, airbender impersonator, organ donor courier, Orochimaru’s lab assistant.

Fortunately, Orochimaru liked me for my mind, not my body. So I was safe. Relatively. Mostly. Not really. It was fucking Orochimaru. Nobody who was anywhere near him was safe.

Well, at least the position allowed me to do one thing I knew needed to be done: bring Orochimaru down.

I knew how he worked. I knew not to trust him. I knew not to be blinded by the progress he was making and everything.

And I knew to ensure nothing happened to me, I needed to become Otoha Kuroki again. I needed to become someone who would be missed if they went missing. So, I took extra shifts in the administration building, I studied while I manned the counter at my parents bookstore.

I braved the one thing I had avoided, inserting myself into the lives my friends from another life had established here, without me. And I wasn’t even doing it because they were once my friends. It was because of the people she knew in this life.

Keisuke Gekko. Student of Minato Namikaze. Soon to be host to Isobu if everything went as it did in the fanfiction we had written so many years ago.

I shook my head and stared at the two girls hugging each other and laughing inside the Nagareboshi Cafe. They were happy. Things were better. They had made things better. And what had I done? Created a new way to kill people? Helped Orochimaru with his experiments? I was responsible for so many of the heartbreaks she was going to face. Obito would die in a few months, get captured by Madara.

She likely would have no idea who I was. What was I to say? “Hello Keisuke Gekko, I’m your best friend, but you don’t remember me.” And to Tomoko? She was created before I really became friends with Vy. “Hello, Tomoko, I know you have no idea who I am, but I was friends with Vy, a Vy who didn’t die and instead read this fanfiction of a story I created with a version of Kei named Lang who didn’t die.”

Yeah. That would go great. Mostly because they’d want to know more. Or they’d hate me. Hate me for all the pain I’d already put them through and all the pain I knew they’d end up with in the future.

Kei swore Kishi’s name when something bad happened from canon. Her entire life. I was responsible for that. I wasn’t really any better than Orochimaru was. Sure, I hadn’t thought the creations on a page I wrote with my best friend were real people, but they were real in my head. I was worse than Orochimaru.

I was the very god I called an asshole.

Everything happens for a reason. Yeah. And that reason is I’m a fucking dick. “It’s all for the story.” I was a hypocrite that’s what I was.

Well, I needed the protection of Minato Namikaze because if I was going to survive Orochimaru, I needed allies strong enough to cause a riot if I went missing.

I rolled my shoulders and stuck my hands in the pockets of my black ninja pants, running my thumb over the butt end of my fan for the tactile sensation. I clicked my teeth.

Well, if I was going to become friends with the self insert version of my best friend in a fanfiction I wrote with her, the least I could do was bring a book.

So of course I went for another layer of “this is just so many levels of meta” and brought her a travel book for Mount Soragami, Sorayama-no-sato and the Chinatsugumi. Plus side to my parents owning a bookstore I guess. It was an old copy of mine, one I had read through a million times and written so many notes in English in the margins, desperately missing the connections from my old life.

And now, here they were, in front of me, just a few steps away, inside the building, the cafe, the nagareboshi cafe, the cafe where Tomoko worked. And I was avoiding actually going inside by repeatedly thinking the same thing.

Ugh. My hands wanted to hold the fan and flip them open and shut. I wanted to get lost in that sound.

So many people whose lives I wanted to be a part of but couldn’t. It wasn’t my place.

Maybe it would be better if I did what I had to, and let whatever happened to me happen. Aaaaand I was doing that thing again where I made my chakra functionally undetectable, pulling it back within myself. Shrinking. Hiding.

No self. We gotta do this. Slimy snake-man is going down and you gotta be around long enough to see it happen.

Why was this scaring me more than mother-fucking Orochimaru?

Whatever my chakra was doing, well, it was certainly enough to get Kei’s attention. Her own chakra laid over the area, heavy like a mist, and I shook the nerves out of my arms. Her sense was like radar, pinging off things and giving her information. Mine was more like well, sitting in a field and watching fireflies. A shark, smelling blood in the water. A ship looking for the lighthouse.

Aaaaaaaa. I was such a coward.

Yup. This was why I had spent a decade of my new life avoiding the versions of my friends that existed.

I took out a slip of paper and wrote a quick note: Hello, Keisuke Gekko. My name is Otoha Kuroki. Come visit me at the Kuroki Bookstore.

Well, I was always better at writing things down than saying them. Slipping it into the back of the book, I determinedly walked forward.

The door is a pull. The door is a pull.

Ok, managed that. Now, for the hard part.

Tomoko and Kei sat at the piano, talking over something I couldn't quite make out. The extra noise from the music made it hard and I didn’t feel like staring long enough to read their lips. Yeah, that thing I said about soul scars? Social Anxiety was still a thing. And in this life it applied to people it hadn’t in the previous one.

But really? There really isn’t any protocol for walking up to a person as a complete stranger and handing them a book revealing you’re a botched reincarnation as well. Like, there simply weren’t enough cases for a protocol to be a thing.

Ugh. Why couldn’t there be a socially acceptable script for this.

Fortify, Otoha. Fortify. You got this.

And Kei went to go get something. Ok. I could do Tomoko alone. I could do that.

I walked right up to Tomoko and I probably intimidated her a bit, or a lot. I mean, I was short and lean, but I was also a Shinobi in a green vest staring very intently at her. My deer-in-the-headlights look always came off as more a if-you-cross-me-I-will-murder-you look so yeah. Useful in the field, not so much when trying not to scare the living daylights out of a civilian pianist. Killing intent, it was killer.

“Could you please give this to Kei,” I said, and shoved the book into her hands. Without another word I ninja-ran-away.

Heart beating a million miles an hour, I ended up back in my parents bookstore.

“Otoha, honey, are you ok? Is something wrong?” Haha asked as I stumbled into a shelf and knocked the display down.

“I’m fine,” I called out, hands shaking, voice shaking.

What a mess I was.

“Ok, well, let me know if you need anything, I’m going to be in the back.”

“Will do, mom.”

At least there were unequivocally good things in this life, and a loving family was one of them.

Resetting the display was a nice distraction, and by the time I was done setting up the travel guides my nerves had calmed down. Which meant all that was left was to take advantage of my long weekend off and man the counter. Wait for Kei.

Yep. Not hard at all. I had been on tougher missions. Longer stake outs. Worse conditions.

Did I mention I was nervous?

Maybe I should have just given her a book titled: How To Tell Your Friend You’re Reincarnated Too.

I pulled out my fuinjutsu supplies and started making exploding tags and smoke tags and basically anything else that let me fall into a zone of repeating the same strokes over and over and over again. At least my habit for making them when I got nervous, and getting nervous a lot, meant that I always had plenty on hand.

I was a better Tenten than Tenten. Well, except for the fact she could fight with practically any weapon and utilized wire and string. So I wasn’t really her at all. I just stored a lot of senbon and exploding tags in my scroll of holding and was able to release them a whole butload at a time.

I spread out a large piece of paper over the counter top and formed a hand seal. Wind Release: Paper Cutting Jutsu. And just like that I turned the air into my scissors, cutting the paper into smaller tag sized pieces.

That had taken a while to learn. Learning to make razor wind? Easy enough. It was one of the earlier stages of my wind release stuff. But making it precise enough I could cut paper cleanly and accurately? Well, let’s just say I made a lot of confetti. Which was also a pretty good thing to unseal in a burst and confuse your opponent while you escaped, or shanked them in the neck.

I was still working on making it strong enough to turn a log into splinters. Unsealing Jutsu: Splinter Confetti. That’s what I was gonna call it when I unsealed all the results of my attempts to do so.

And the ability to cut people to shreds with a garbage disposal made of air? Well, that sounded pretty useful too. Probably wasn’t going to store shredded people in a thing to unseal later. Although, now that I thought of it, that would probably freak some people out. Unsealing Technique: Flesh Confetti. Yeah… Might be a viable tactic. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

And it was about that time that Kei walked in.

“Kuroki-san?” Kei asked.

Yeah. That’s. Yeah. Nope. My mouth wasn’t working. At least I didn’t duck behind the counter? Yet. My chakra though? Yeah, that was doing it’s best to retreat in on itself. Kei’s stare. That was still the same. Chuckling nervously, I cleaned up the paper in front of me. Wouldn’t do to have Kei’s stare make it spontaneously catch fire.

“Kuroki-san?” she asked again.

Oh. Right. I’d never actually introduced myself to her. I’d been too busy hiding. Hehe.

“Uh,” I said, desperately searching for something to say, lifting an ink stained left hand to wave. “Uh, hi, Lang Lang.”

Yeah. That made Kei stare at me funny. But the wheels in her head were turning. I mean, there were only so many people who would know who the Chinatsugumi really were and who had called her Lang Lang, so that narrowed down … I hadn’t actually told her who I was.

She figured it out thought. “Os?”

“Yeah,” I breathed out. And like that the anxiety fluttered away, replaced by happy smiling me. “Looks like I’m not in Kansas anymore.” And another nervous chuckle. Heh.

“Must've been some tornado that dropped you here,” Kei responded dryly.

I shrugged. “Well, you know, my tea kettle sounded like the siren so I didn’t notice it.” With all that out of the way, I took a deep breath, set my shoulders, and continued on with the metaphor. “Anyway, I need some help dropping a house on a wicked witch.”

And what else was I supposed to say “we represent the anbu lab, the anbu lab, the anbu lab, we represent the anbu lab and welcome you to konoha?” I may have hummed it. And then I vaulted over the counter and squished Kei in the biggest hugs of all hugs to make up for all the time we had missed. I’m pretty sure the word ‘glomp’ applied. And I was still short enough for her to use my head as an armrest. Lovely.

Kei smirked. “So, what took you so long to find me?”

I’ve been watching you since I realized I was in a timeline you existed but I avoided you because reasons? Yeah, that’d go over swimmingly. So I skipped over that and gave a different excuse, breaking off the hug to scratch the back of my head. “Oh, you know, being a ninja, becoming a chunin, becoming an airbender, joining ANBU, getting a tattoo, getting assigned to be Orochimaru’s lab assistant…”

One of these is not like the other, one of these just doesn’t belong.

Kei visibly paled at the mention of Orochimaru’s name.

Yeah, I had expected that. Even as the famed Tidal Blade she was still scared shitless of him. And that was a good decade off for her. Right now, she was just a girl who was really good with a sword.

And I was going to be working alongside him for the foreseeable future. Lucky me.

“Soo…” I said, “I obviously need help to not get all disappeared. And someone to give all the dirt I dig up to.”

“Orochimaru,” Kei said.

I nodded. “Super creepy snake guy. That Orochimaru, in case there was another one running around who also ran human experiments in an ANBU basement.”

Error message 404 page not found. Kei.exe has stopped working. So I sighed, crushed her in another hug, and said, “Come on, we should let Vy know about this too. It’ll be good to see her again.”

“...Again?” Kei asked as I took her hand and started pulling her out of the bookstore.

“I’ll be back later,” I called out to my parents in the backroom as I left. “Yeah, I uh… knew her back when I was Os.” We met because Lang and I wrote your story as a fanfiction and Vy was a fan. Yeah, that’d go over well.

But hey, I was a chunin. Also ANBU. I had resources.

This was like realizing I was “the adult” all over again.

Responsibilities suck.

“Hey, Kei, did you find the person who gave you the book?” Tomoko asked as we entered, her attention on the piano. But once she looked up she kind of stopped playing, and talking.

I ran forward and gave her a huge hug before any of her other reactions could happen. “I missed you two so much, I’m so sorry I took this long to say hi.”

Tomoko kind of patted me on the back and waved her hand. “Uh.. it’s uh, good to see you too?” She had no idea who I was. Tomoko came into existence before Vy and I had become friends.

I released her, ready to tell her I was Beta and then froze. Because that’d mean telling Kei she didn’t really exist. And that’d mean I was the one with future knowledge of the plot and I really didn’t want to have to carry that.

“Uh, we haven’t met yet,” I said, fiddling with the loose fabric of my wind-sleeves. “We met after you became Tomoko. Like, an alternate timeline were Vy was still alive.” Yeah. That’d work. “But you’re still her and you and… yeah.”

Tomoko laughed and waved it off. “That’s ok. I’m just confused is all. It’s nice to meet you…”

“Otoha,” I finished. “Kei and I were best friends in that other timeline. You and I were too.”

#my writing #naruto #naruto fanfiction #the sea and stars #catch your breath fanfic #keisuke gekko #hoshino tomoko #otoha kuroki

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